Environmental management solutions for bus terminals utilizing SWOT analysis

As a communication link between suburban and urban roads, terminals prevent buses from entering the cities, thus, they play an important role in improving traffic flow, reducing urban environmental pollution. Clearly, proximity of te rminals to cities will bring about environmental pollution in different forms (soil, water, air and wastewater). The current study tries to investigate the environmental management solutions for Tehran West Terminal. For this purpose, all the environmental aspects of bus terminals, including air, water, soil and traffic were investigated. Then, with respect to the primary assessments, a questionnaire was prepared and distributed among drivers and terminal staff. According to the obtained results, a SWOT matrix was designed and implemented after completing the Analytic Hierarchy Process. The results of soil sampling showed that pollutants like heavy metals and volatile organic matters (Benzene and Toluene) were above the standards set by the Iran Department of the Environment. In terms of air pollutants, all the gases and particles were above the standards set forth by Iran Department of the Environment.  According to SWOT analysis, the aggressive scenario strategies obtained the highest scores. They included periodic trainings for the managers, drivers and other terminal staff (5.31), constant monitoring by Iran Department of the Environment (4.72), establishing internal environmental regulations (4.44), forbidding unauthorized car repairs especially oil Chang outside the repair shops (3.93), and supervision of cooperative managers on controlling vehicles and their drivers (3.73), were selected as superior strategies, respectively.